Non-aerosol sprays are a popular form for conveniently delivering a wide variety of hair care products. However, a common problem with many non-aerosol sprays is that they tend to deliver streams or dribbles of product rather than a uniformly atomized spray. Even those products which appear to be fully atomized are often found, upon closer examination, to possess "hot spots", i.e. areas of incompletely atomized product, or do not provide a solid pattern. Uniform delivery of a spray product is an important benefit, especially for products applied to the hair, to avoid overspraying during application.
Hair care spray products of the prior art also suffer from the disadvantage of not affording users with an adequate degree of application control. These products dispense with a wide cone angle, causing the product to drift or be unintentionally sprayed onto surfaces to which application of the product is not intended. Additionally, this lack of application control results in product wastage.
Another disadvantage of many of the hair care spray products of the prior art is that the pump dispensers are difficult to operate, requiring an inconveniently large amount of force and number of strokes to prime the pump to properly dispense the product as a spray.
Additionally, many of the spray products of the past relied almost exclusively upon aerosol containers to deliver fine, uniform spray mists. With the concern for the effects of fluorocarbons on the ozone layer and the advent of restrictions against the use of fluorocarbons in atomizing dispensers, the development of compositions which can be delivered by non-aerosol spray containers has become increasingly important.
Crosslinked polymeric conditioning agents have been disclosed in the art as conditioning agents, thickening agents or hair damage prevention agents. PCT Application WO 94/10833 to Cox, et al. published Apr. 13, 1995 discloses hair care compositions containing crosslinked polymeric conditioning agents in compositions. for improved hair shine benefits. These conditioning agents, although effective, have a viscosity building effect and are most suitable for cream and lotion shampoos and conditioners. However, the resulting high viscosities of hair care compositions containing these crosslinked polymeric conditioning agents have prevented the use of these agents in low viscosity products such as non-aerosol sprays.
Therefore, it would be highly desirable to develop non-aerosol products containing cross-linked polymeric conditioning agents which overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide atomizible hair spray products which possess superior delivery and atomization characteristics when delivered from a spray pump. Another object of the present invention is to deliver fine, uniform spray mists which do not stream and dribble and which a solid pattern of atomized product. It is another object of the present invention to provide spray products which when used in pump dispensers are easy to dispense. It is a further object of the present invention to deliver improved spray products without resorting to less desirable aerosol sprays. It is a still further object of the present invention to provide methods for providing improved delivery of an atomizable hair care composition.
These and other objects and benefits of the present invention as may be set forth herein as may now or later become apparent to those skilled in the art can be provided according to the invention which is described herein.
The invention hereof can comprise, consist of, or consist essentially of the essential elements described herein as well as any of the preferred or other optional ingredients described herein.
All percentages herein are by weight of the total composition unless otherwise indicated. All ratios are weight ratios unless otherwise indicated. Unless otherwise indicated, all percentages, ratios, and levels of ingredients referred to herein are based on the actual amount of the ingredient, and do not include solvents, fillers, or other materials with which the ingredient may be combined in commercially available products. All measurements are at 25.degree. C. or room temperature, unless otherwise designated.
All documents referred to herein, including all patents, all patent applications, all articles, all bulletins, all pamphlets, and all technical data sheets are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.